Singapore, April 2 -- Australia's University of Queensland (UQ) researchers have found targeting amyloid plaque in the brain is not essential for ultrasound to deliver cognitive improvement in neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr Gerhard Leinenga and Professor Jurgen Gotz from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) said the finding challenges the conventional notion in Alzheimer's disease research that targeting and clearing amyloid plaque is essential to improve cognition.

"Previous studies have focused on opening the blood-brain barrier with microbubbles, which activate the cell type in the brain called microglia which clears the amyloid plaque. But we used scanning ultrasound alone on mouse models and observed significant memory enhancemen...